CLEVELAND, Ohio -- During the 1960s and 1970s, the name Fazio’s was synonymous with grocery shopping in Northeast Ohio.

The opening of a new store in Northeast Ohio was greeted with newspaper articles extolling the European flavors in Fazio’s bakery departments, gourmet specialties from around the world and large produce department. At the height of his grocery store empire in 1969, John Fazio’s chain encompassed 202 stores in Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and California.

“If you grew up in Cleveland, you definitely knew the name Fazio,” said daughter Janice Fazio, 63, of Moreland Hills.

John Fazio was a big man with a personality to match. He didn’t drink or smoke, but he loved spaghetti and meatballs, tennis and golf. He used to skip school to take tap dancing lessons, and he was as good as a professional bowler.

He was the center of attention wherever he went, Janice Fazio said. She remembers that when there were long lines at her father’s favorite Italian restaurant, a maître’d would appear and usher the family past waiting customers to a special table. “I’m thinking my dad is a king,” Janice Fazio said.

“Number one, he was a wonderful guy,” said Al Ratner, former Forest City CEO. “He cared a lot about Cleveland. He loved what he was doing, and he did it phenomenally well.”

The pinnacle of John Fazio’s career was his purchase of the faltering Fisher Foods grocery stores. But his empire collapsed when he was accused of price fixing. He reacted by taking his retail experience in a different direction.

John Fazio was born in Cleveland, the youngest of three children. He worked on his father’s fruit car, then later dropped out of Alexander Hamilton High School to work in his father’s small grocery store along with his brother, Carl.

John, Carl and their father Charles opened their first store, called Fazio’s, in the Cedar-Lee district of Cleveland Heights in the 1930s. John fell for Anita, a Woolworth’s cashier, and they married in 1941 despite opposition from both families. His family didn’t like her because she wasn’t Italian, and her family had the opposite objection about John, Janice Fazio said.

After serving in World War II, John Fazio settled in Cleveland Heights with his wife and children, which included Janice, Charles and John Jr.

By 1960, the business had grown to include Fazio’s and Stop-N-Shop stores, run by brothers John and Carl.

John Fazio frequently visited all the stores, insisting on friendly customer service and asking customers what he could improve. He’d taste all the bakery goods and knew if the dinner rolls needed more salt. He’d insist that only fresh cuts of meat be displayed. He’d even help housewives find the pickles.

John, Carl and other investors purchased the then-faltering Fisher Foods chain in 1965. The sale expanded the company to 120 stores.

Janice Fazio remembered her father taking a phone call at home, hearing that the sale had gone through, and announcing the news to the family. “It was a moment of elation in our household,” she recalled.

In the late 1960s, the family moved to Roundwood Manor, once part of the real estate empire built by the Van Sweringen brothers who built Terminal Tower.

The mansion had suffered neglect, but under Anita Fazio’s guidance it was remodeled so expertly that it was featured in Architectural Digest. With its nine bedrooms, indoor pool, three dining rooms and huge kitchen, “it was a fairy-tale house to grow up in,” Janice Fazio recalled.

Janice worked in the warehouses during summer breaks, while her brothers Charles and John Jr. worked alongside their father and uncle in the grocery stores.

John Fazio’s fortunes slipped in the 1970s when he narrowly escaped prison for his role in a price-fixing case involving Fisher Foods, Pick-n-Pay and Stop-N-Shop. The companies agreed to issue $20 million in food coupons to settle the antitrust suit.

John Fazio maintained that other grocery stores were doing the same thing, and he just happened to get caught. “Dad felt it shouldn’t have been a big deal,” Janice Fazio said.

Fazio was forced to take early retirement as Fisher’s president and CEO in May 1979 rather than fight the board of directors. His brother Carl, Fisher chairman, succeeded him as chief executive of the chain.

John Fazio divorced in 1977, and married Terry Fazio in a Las Vegas wedding in 1979.

A non-compete clause barred him from opening more grocery stores in the Cleveland area for several years. But later, he and wife Terry, a former Fisher Foods personnel director, opened Jote’s, a food and drug store, in Willowick in 1982. The couple continued to run it after moving to Dallas in the 1980s.

In Dallas, John and Terry opened three deep-discount stores that were the forerunners of Sam’s Club and Costco. He remained active in that business until 2000, when he retired at age 80.

In addition to his daughter Janice, survivors include wife Terry of Dallas, sister Vivian Dolan of Naples, Florida; brother Carl Fazio of Cleveland; children Charles Fazio of Dallas, and John Jr. of Dallas, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Services will be held in Dallas later this month.

John Fazio will want to be remembered for the grocery stores that bore his name. “That was his first love,” Janice Fazio said.